


broken tether

by mamalovesherbagels



Series: Bad Things Happen Bingo [3]
Category: 9-1-1 (TV)
Genre: Ouch this is angsty, but it IS bad things happen bingo after all, takes place during fight or flight
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-11
Updated: 2020-12-11
Packaged: 2021-03-10 21:55:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 709
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28014294
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mamalovesherbagels/pseuds/mamalovesherbagels
Summary: Takes place during Fight or Flight in season 2. In a cruel twist of fate, when just twenty minutes prior getting away from Doug gave her the best chance at survival, now depending on the other to stay alive is their combined best chance at making it through the day.
Series: Bad Things Happen Bingo [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2048141
Comments: 3
Kudos: 6





	broken tether

She doesn’t know how it came to do this.

Well, quick amendment, she supposes she understands the how, just not the why. She made a miscalculation, high on adrenaline and survival instinct and there is a possible cost to every risk, but this just feels like an unbearably cruel consequence.

As much as she wants to take the knife beside her and plunge it into his chest, as much as it would be justified as a self defense killing, she takes it into her hand and throws it as far away as she can with her good arm. It doesn’t end up landing too far away; she’s weak, but it’s far enough that he can’t grab it. 

Neither of them are very mobile at this point.

She had crashed the car. He had slowed down, trying to make sure he was taking the right turn to get them to Big Bear and she had grabbed the wheel and turned it violently. All she had intended to do was crash it into his side, not even to kill him, just to injure him enough that she could run off to get help and even if he did manage to get out of the car, he would be too far behind to catch up to her.

That had been the plan, but adrenaline had given her tunnel vision. She hadn’t seen the ditch, she hadn’t seen the slope. The car had flipped and then flipped another time and now here they are, both just lying on the ground with a multitude of cuts and broken bones between them after just barely being able to crawl out from under the mangled rental car.

What feels the most cruel isn’t the burning sensation in her thigh nor the throbbing in her arm, but the fact that she knows that now, her best chances at survival are if she helps to keep him alive. Just twenty minutes ago, getting as far away from his as possible was the only way she was going to get through the day without dying.

Now stranded, unsure if any other cars on the road saw their crash and if help is coming or if it will ever come, she knows that having a partner in this is her only chance at thickening up her slim chances of making it through.

The irony makes her want to puke, or maybe it’s just the searing pain from the gash on her upper leg. Doug’s hands are gentle for the first time that day, lightly poking and prodding and peeking to see if there’s any glass in the wound and just how bad it is, and she supposes he’s also easily figured out that now he needs to keep her alive, too.

He’s always been evil, but never dumb.

A bottle of water that must have rolled out from the car is in his hand, she sees from her blurry peripheral vision and she turns around to face him, presuming that he’s going to give her a few sips.

He shakes his head, and actually seems sorry for once.

“I’m going to have to clean the wound, Maddie. I’m really sorry, but this is all I have and I’m sure you know I don’t have any lidocaine or painkillers right now…”

“Just get it over with,” she nods, squeezing her eyes shut tight and balling her fingers up into a fist on the side of her jeans that haven’t been ripped open.

She bites her lip and braces herself, but despite her efforts, the second the lukewarm water trickles down into the cut, she’s screaming in pain and tears are streaming down her face.

He’s making her cry out in pain, and for the first time in their entire relationship, it’s justified. He’s hurting her to keep her alive.

Still, he wonders if any of it is out of love, and not just his selfish desire to stay alive when he had most likely been hellbent on killing her by the end of the day before.

“I’m sorry, Maddie, I’m sorry.”

He sounds like he means it, but she doesn’t trust him. He hasn’t given her a reason to trust him in years.

She bets he’s getting off on her pain.


End file.
